The scalpel is a necessary tool for surgical operation and its safety is extremely important to healthcare workers and patients. At present, a conventional scalpel consists of a metal handle and a disposable blade which is installed on the handle before use and removed from the handle after use. The installation and removal of a blade is a difficult and dangerous process, as the user is subject to the potential injury caused by an exposed or contaminated blade. Operating staff are prone to be hurt by the sharp instrument when passing the exposed scalpel to a colleague.
In order to improve the safety, existing surgical scalpels have been designed to incorporate the concept of carrying a shield. European patent EP0988832A2 discloses an invention patent application titled Surgical Scalpel applied by American BD Company (Becton, Dickinson Company). The surgical scalpel according to the patent application consists of a disposable blade assembly and a reusable handle. The blade assembly consists of a blade, blade holder and shield. Although this kind of sliding sleeve type surgical scalpel, by applying the shield structure, solves the safety problem caused by the exposed blade, it has not thoroughly solved the safety problem of reusing the scalpel. In other words, it's still possible to open and close the shield multiple times during use of the scalpel, so this kind of scalpel could not absolutely eliminate the possibility of reusing the scalpel.
Therefore, it's urgently necessary to invent a kind of safe and reliable scalpel, which could overcome the above described disadvantages of scalpels in prior art and serve the medical care industry better.